It's time again for you to read the newest installment in Earthbound.Net's longest running article series. If you have been reading articles for a while, you will know what this is about. But for those of you who have not read an Earthbound's Greatest Mysteries article before, I will tell you what these are about. This is the series where I analyze some of the most puzzling things in one of the strangest games ever made. I state a lot of facts about it and then give possible explanations for it. And now, without further adieu, I bring you the article.

So you're walking from Onett to Twoson and you see something weird. It's a walking mushroom. Then you think, "I'm going to show this mushroom who's boss." So you make contact with it, and the freaky blue swirly thing happens with the screen. You then enter the battle screen. So, you go to the "Bash" command and press "A". You wait for your turn to strike when something odd happens. The screen says, Ramblin' Evil Mushroom scattered some spores, and your character start to feel strange. Then you see that you have a mushroom next to your character's name. Then, it's your time to strike, but the weirdness continues. The screen then says, "Ness was feeling funky," and you deal damage to yourself. Then you realize that this is not just a normal condition. You then realized that you are mushroomized. Now anyways, you're thinking, "Something weird is going on, better get out of battle." You then run away. When you get back to the map screen, you notice another oddity, Ness has a mushroom growing out of his head! You don't really think of it as a big deal so you keep on walking, but wait a second, you're walking the wrong way. You press up, Ness goes down. You press left, Ness goes right. Is your game messing up? Nope, these are just the effects of mushroomization.

Now let's anylize this. First of all, the thought of a walking mushroom is weird enough, but that isn't what this article is about. It's what the mushroom does. Now, isn't mushroomization weird? You get a mushroom growing out of your head, and you start doing weird stuff. Symptoms of being mushroomized are, beating yourself up during battle, and walking the wrong way on the map screens. How is this possible? Well I'll tell you.

This is how I see it. When the Ramblin' Evil Mushroom scatters spores, one of the lands on you head. This spore starts growing, and the roots sink down in your head. So far, in fact, that they mess up your brain. They make you do weird things and make you feel funky. It's that simple.